Project Details
Topic of Interest you will have in-class time October 17
Local, statewide, nationwide, international?
Specific event or person?
On-going injustice?
Two Articles Email me a link or PDF of articles October 18
Both must be found from an accredited newspaper or journal
At least one must be objective
Articles must be at least a page long
Personal Stance Email me your draft or hand in a hard-copy October 22
Paragraph 1: Write a summary of your topic. What is your topic? Who is involved? Where? What are the points being argued or questioned?
Paragraph 2: Explain what your personal stance is. What side are you on? Why do you feel it is important in today’s culture? What could be done to alleviate this injustice?
Relevant Artwork We will share in class October 22
Find at least 1 piece of artwork that is relevant to your topic. The artist may have an opposing viewpoint. Be prepared to present to the class: Artist, title, date, medium; what message is the artist trying to convey?
Design Sketch October 23
Detailed drawing of your design from 3 different angles: front, back, and birds-eye view
What do you want to communicate through your piece?
Sculpture, relief, installation, functional, non-functional?
Ceramic Piece TBD
You may use any technique to construct your piece. There are no constraints on size - simply that it fit in the kiln.
Art is identified as political art when it challenges the status quo or brings attention to a social injustice, the repetition of war and failure to learn from our mistakes, our dehumanization as a consumer society, our spoiling of the environment, or the state of our existence. Bringing awareness to the public can cause change or at least serve as a wake up call to correct societal behavior.
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| Richard Notkin, All Nations Have Their Moments of Foolishness, 2006 |
Richard Notkin has been one of my favorite ceramic artists for many decades. I first saw his work in NCECA (National Council on education of Ceramic Art) shows. The work was usually small, with the highest calibre of craftsmanship. Endangered Species dating back to the 70s, had a skull staring at a television set. Over time he has reused the skull motif in many of his works. He has used the human heart as a teapot. Ears have also become a recurring symbol, i.e., lessons to be learned but falling on deaf ears.
The inaugural exhibition of Legacy and The Gift from his Passages exhibition was at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings in 1999. Notkin said the ears reminded him of articles left behind by the Jews at concentration camps during WWII. Our failure to learn from our history falls on deaf ears. Richard Notkin is the frontrunner in this genre of contemporary ceramics. His personal statement sums it up:
“We have stumbled into the 21st Century with the advanced technologies of “Star Wars” and the emotional maturity of cavemen. If we can’t find more creative solutions to solving worldwide social and political problems other than sending young men and women to shred and incinerate one another’s flesh with weapons of ever increasing efficiency, we will not survive to celebrate the passage into the 22nd century. And to make a dangerous situation worse, our country and too many of our fragile planet’s nations are now in the hands of right wing thugs and fundamentalist tyrants who are fumbling the planet towards World War III. It is for these reasons, and far more, that I have chosen to continue to make ceramic sculptures which reflect on the social and political dilemmas of our world. As André Malraux observed, “Art is a revolt against man’s fate.” Need I say more? – Richard Notkin
Notkin has been at the forefront of the social consciousness reminding us of how we fail to learn from the mistakes of the past. His anti-war pieces convey a raw emotional response. His murals consisting of hundreds of tiles, each with its own image, combine into a visual image of greater impact. In Its No Use Shouting there is a border of deaf ears. There is reference to a photo of a tortured prisoner of Abu Ghraib prison. There is reference to Michelangelo’s David as the potential perfection of mankind. Brick walls, barbed wire, bombs dropping, dice, represent man’s ability to destroy, confine, and incarcerate. The dice show that it is by chance whether we be on the receiving or giving part of this action.
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| Richard Notkin, Tea Set-Iraq 2007 |
Tea Set-Iraq (2007) refers to the way the U.S. was brought into this conflict: by the reference to WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction, manufactured in the U.S.A.
Artists focus on what is meaningful to them personally. Adelaide Paul has been working on raising awareness of animal cruelty issues ranging from experiments on laboratory animals in a consumer society, to animals treated as merely commodities. In her triptych, Win/Place/Show, Paul emphasizes the Greyhounds used as commodities for race track gambling, who are then discarded or destroyed if they are not fast enough.
She states: “The Win/Place/Show piece is about the racing greyhound as fetish and as commodity. Although adoption rates have improved greatly, there is still a substantial number in the industry who think little of killing dogs that cannot run fast enough. Again, the dog is simply a means to an end–a status symbol, an asset when it runs fast, and a liability when it does not run fast enough. The obvious reference to the crucifixion is a bit of a jab at a Judeo-Christian world view that all too frequently confuses responsible and compassionate dominion with brutal domination.
“In general, I do not want to push a specific agenda with my work. That is to say, I do not seek to proselytize so much as to pose questions. I am concerned with animal welfare but I do not ally myself with those in the “animal rights” movement (thinkPETA, Grey2K) and PLEASE do not refer to me as an animals rights activist–I am not an activist. I do seek to pose questions to myself and to others about the complex consumer/consumed/consummated relations we have with our fellow species.
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| Adelaide Paul, Win/Place/Show |
“When I was working on this piece, a shelter worker told me about the time a well dressed white woman walked in with a box of day old purebred lab puppies. The shelter worker told her that the puppies would have to be euthanized, as there was no way that they had the staff or resources to care for one day old puppies. The woman seemed unconcerned, so the staff person asked why she bred her dog in the first place. She replied: “oh, I just wanted my children to see the miracle of birth.”
In an effort to really drive the point home, Adelaide collected the ashes of destroyed dogs at a single shelter in Lubbock, TX for thirty days and put them into urns. The shelter destroys an average of 460 dogs per month. The sheer numbers of urns is a sobering reminder that people need to be responsible for their animals. Birth rates of animals must be controlled and owners need to be held responsible.
Susan Schultz lives on Long Island Sound. Susan kayaks along the shores of the Sound. Her direct observation of the litter in our waters is constantly evident. She is acutely aware of the delicate balance of the oceans.
In a recent talk at the University of Connecticut she explained:
“When I began my research, I read that this swirling gyre of plastic was the size of Texas. Now I hear that it is twice the size of Texas.
“The rotating currents of the North Pacific Gyre can trap floating debris for years. The plastic comes not only from objects discarded from boats, but also garbage washed into the sea from inland waterways and storm drains. Some garbage is blown off garbage trucks, spilled by railroad cars, or is carried down rivers to the sea. Sometimes whole container boxes are dumped. Curtis Ebbesmeyer documents this in his book “Flotsometrics,” where the destiny of a load of rubber ducks and Nike sneakers are tracked. I also found disturbing photographs from Midway Atoll showing dead baby albatross, their bared ribcages exposing various plastics that they were fed by their mothers. Normally they are fed flying fish eggs, which were laid on pieces of floating pumice or wood, but now on floating plastic.
“Since they lack the ability to regurgitate until about 3 months, many die. My piece, Unintended Consequences-Albatross, was my reaction and documentation of this horrible situation. I spent over 3 months making the hundreds of parts for Plastic Ocean-Catch. I intended to convey a feeling of abundance, as if the net were cast and lifted, revealing the huge proportion of garbage over sea life. For models, I used plastic bottles and objects, washed in and out with the tide, collected on the coast from Maine to Florida, and also from Italy and France. Plastic pollution is universal, only the colors and shapes are different.
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| Susan Schultz, Plastic Ocean-Catch |
"In the Plastic Ocean-Catch piece, I recreated these plastic found objects in porcelain, giving them equal weight with the natural objects, bringing attention to what is often overlooked. When walking on the beach, we often don’t see the garbage in spite of its abundance. White is a reductive device, suggesting the pure, antiseptic and transcendence of an object. The idea of removing or “bleaching” the color by salt and sun adds a ghostly sense of purity to the trash, and elevates the tossed-aside objects to the same level as the fish, seaweed, and shells. There is a beauty, however tragic, in the decaying plastic, not unlike the folds of cloth in Renaissance paintings."
Another artist referring to environment and animals is Ovidio Giberga. His experiences in Montana and New Mexico prior to coming to San Antonio have greatly influenced his work. His sensitivity to ancient beliefs and respect of indigenous societies have given him a basis for interpreting what he sees as an internal conflict for survival. He states:
“My immediate environment strongly influences the content of my sculptures. Having lived in New Mexico added new shapes and forms to my visual vocabulary. In the series of “Burdened Bear Skulls,” the skull serves as an icon for the Southwest landscape. The “Silver Back Bear” in particular is indigenous to that area, and to the indigenous peoples symbolizes healing and knowledge. In “Precious Fluids”, images of New Mexico’s primary natural resources: water, oil, and blood, which have also been a source of conflict, are incised into the ceramic sculls. Throughout history, these resources have been squandered and these fluids spilled onto the ground, following the channels formed by the fusion plates in the skulls.
“The conflict between natural forces and people is a recurring theme throughout much of my work. A series of sculpted animal trophy heads burdened with metal dental appliances were inspired by my experience living in Montana. They hang on the wall referencing images of classical Christian martyrs. Ancient peoples believed that teeth embodied the strength and vitality of the being, but human dental appliances on wild animals creates an awkward juxtaposition. I capitalize on this in order to comment on the issue of urban encroachment on natural wild life corridors in the west. Increased urban development in these sensitive areas is choking off natural migration patterns and endangering the survival of many beautiful and marvelous creatures.
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| Ovidio Giberga, In Vented Bear Skulls |
”In Vented Bear Skulls, the burdens take the form of geometric and structural forms referencing urban or social influences. The structural forms on the “Vented Bear Skulls 3 and 4” reflect a group of “kivas” and on the black skull, a “speak hole” like those used in gas stations and banks. These represent devices or barriers dealing with communication between different hierarchies; people and their gods, and people and institutions.”
Artists reflect the world with unique perspectives. Sometimes there can be moral lessons to be learned. Some of the strongest work in ceramics is that which represents a strong moral message. Politics are one’s personal stand or expression of a commitment to an ideal or an evaluation of a particular aspect in our social world. Society needs to heed the message.
Marcia Selsor, Professor Emerita from Montana State University-Billings, is currently a working artist living in Brownsville, TX.
